“I laughed all the way through Young Frankenstein — it’s stupendously silly and shameless all the way through, too, but that’s also entirely the point. It's sole function is to be a laughter generator; and as such, it is thoroughly successful, as I just couldn't stop laughing.
I might caution that laughter, of course, is a very personal thing, and you may not laugh as hard as I did. But it isn't for lack of trying on everyone's parts here, from Brooks, of course, who in addition to co-writing the book with Thomas Meehan (having originally co-written the film with its star Gene Wilder) has also written the music and lyrics, to director/choreographer Susan Stroman who has brought it with such a flourish to the stage, her brilliant design team (led by set designer Beowulf Boritt and costume designer William Ivey Long) and fabulous London cast.
Stroman also previously shepherded Brooks's 2001 adaptation of his 1967 film The Producers to the Broadway stage, and that remains one of the laugh-out-loud funniest musicals I've ever seen.
Here is a show in a vaudevillian music hall tradition that's very legible to British audiences, steeped as we are in pantomime, yet also executed with real Broadway theatrical aplomb. Stroman previously brought another Broadway musical The Scottsboro Boys to the Garrick in 2014, one of the most affecting and heartrending shows of the century so far. This show is in an entirely different register, proving her incredible versatility.”